You asked for it
by Cafe de Flore
Summary: A day marked by unpleasant encounters and failed plans ends rather unexpectedly when Temari shows up before him.


It was a shitty day.

Monumentally shitty.

Not only he overslept the mission he was supposed to lead (because apparently he forgot to set his alarm), but also got scolded by his mother in the morning while he was in a hurry to go.

"Shikamaru! You promised me you'd help me with house works today!"

"I can't, mom, I have a mission, I told you."

"Then why you're giving a promise you can't keep?"

"I forgot!"

"You're not young enough or old enough to make that excuse. It's unimaginable. Look at this house! Don't you think I get tired of keeping it clean all the time!? And what do you do about it? Nothing! You just sleep or stare at the sky!"

"I do missions, like the one I have to do NOW." He was already slipping into his shoes.

"Nara Shikamaru, you are ungrateful, unemphatetic human being. I'm glad your father is no longer with us and he cannot feel the disappointment I have to endure."

That hurt.

Shikamaru knew his mother wasn't in her best mood the past few days, and he suspected it was because of those woman hormone variations, but that didn't make him at ease, although he handled himself just enough so not to slap the door loudly.

One thing he didn't want to be was a disappointment, especially to his father, and she knew it very well. He swallowed the bitterness and run to the meeting point.

"Shikamaru! Where the hell have you been!?" Ino's angry voice greeted him from afar.

He stopped right in front of her and Choji, both of which seemed seriously annoyed. Unsurprisingly, knowing how long they have been waiting for him.

"I'm sorry guys, I overslept."

"We have been waiting for you for over an hour, Shikamaru." Even his best friend seemed hostile today. "Anbu troops decided not to wait and go on their own."

"Shit. We have to catch up with them."

This was a serious mission. A daughter of influential landlord got kidnapped by some villagers north of Konoha, and the gang was said to be over 30 people. Surely they weren't very skilled in fighting, however numerous. Shikamaru was assigned with Ino and Choji plus two Anbu members to lead the mission and rescue the young woman. Now two of the team members decided to leave without his permission, which was both understandable, given the circumstances, and infuriating. "Shit."

They began running.

Anbu members had some additional information about the villagers neither of remaining members knew, and Shikamaru was planning on carefully knitting the mission plan during the trip towards the hideout, but now he couldn't even tell a preliminary idea on how to proceed, and instead had to run on full speed for over an hour. Naturally, this left the three of them physically exhausted, and as they finally reached their destination - a valley in which the village was located - they had an uncomfortable realisation someone was behind them. Shikamaru flinched inside and turned around rapidly.

Luckily it was one of the Anbu members, but Shikamaru was unnerved about the fact that it might have been an enemy sneaking up on them, and he would have missed it.

"Nara." The woman behind a dog mask spoke. "I apologize we left without you but we couldn't risk sabotaging the life of a young woman waiting."

There was no apology in her voice though and normally calm Shikamaru actually got irritated.

"I was appointed as a head of this mission and such decisions can not be taken without my knowledge. You should have contacted me."

"You are a head of this mission but we Anbu are not under your direct command and rather are just your allies. You are right about contacting you but we also cannot risk being seen in the village by your house right before the mission."

"As an Anbu you can be both silent and invisible and we both know it."

A hand landed on his shoulder. It was Ino, her tone a bit softer but still not the same as always.

"Shikamaru, stop it. You know she's right. And we all have more important matters at hand."

He cursed inside, staring at the Anbu member's eyes - the only part of her face visible through her mask. He could swear he saw obvious mockery, and he was angry. This was all on him, and that made it even worse. But Ino was right, and he swallowed the humiliation.

"Update us on the situation, please."

The woman lingered in silence, giving him that nasty look. Yes, he knew he had no respect from her, but he simply had to switch his thoughts to the actual mission.

"Dohiko village. It is located in the valley, completely surrounded by thick forest. Nothing extraordinary about it, except the speculation that Orochimaru once had a hideout somewhere near this place, and also that a group of bandits, originating from this village, live in that hideout and sometimes travel to raid neighbouring villages. The landlord and his family live not far from here, thus this gang are prime suspects of kidnapping. However as far as we know they haven't yet contacted the landlord for any ransom. Me and my comrade arrived at this exact point about half an hour ago and went separate ways to look for any clues, arranging to meet here around… well, now."

"Did you find anything of interest?"

"No."

"Then we have to follow the path your comrade took. If he's not back yet, he either found something or he's in trouble."

"You don't say…" The woman murmured to herself, but loud enough for Shikamaru, but not others, to hear.

Feeling humiliated yet again, Shikamaru took a deep breath silently.

As they turned to go, he asked her one last thing. "Do you have any information about the daughter?"

"Name's Takako. Long black hair, she wears them in a braid. Was kidnapped wearing a blue dress." So after all she didn't give all the information she had in the first place. He was starting to lose his patience again.

"Anything else you'd like to share?" His tone was biting, but she deserved nothing less.

However dog-masked woman seemed to pay no mind. "Not really."

What kind of answer was that!?

Silently and carefully travelling on the tree branches they quickly made their way, looking for another Anbu member. It was midday already, and the sun shining through the green leaves helped camouflage them from any eyes looking above, however it also made it difficult for them to notice anything suspicious on the ground.

At some point Shikamaru heard a sound of a stick breaking, and halted moving, looking around for the origin of that sound. Ino was ahead of him, Choji - to his right, Anbu woman - behind him, and the sound seemed to be coming from the left and below. As his eyes darted and finally located the figure on a lower branch, Ino and the Anbu woman were already by another animal-mask weared, this time it was a bird. Shikamaru and Choji hurried there and the group was finally together.

The bird-mask man nodded to the team, holding a deliberately broken stick in his hands, and quickly told what he figured out. It appeared to be a hideout indeed, dug into the ground, and it had at least three entrances. From where he was he could see two, but not very clearly, and during his observation he spotted 7 men, all dressed in dark clothes, not wearing any distinguishable items. Seemed to be a random group of young people. He have not seen any women.

"Okay. If the report we have from Konoha is correct and there are around 30 members, it means there are too many for us to take out at once. If we engage in a fight with them one by one, someone might hurt the kidnapped girl. Besides, we're not instructed to terminate them, only to retrieve the daughter. It's logical to think she would be held somewhere inside, so we need to figure out which entrance would be the best to sneak in. We split into four groups - you alone (he nodded at Anbu woman), Choji and Ino together, and I alone are to observe the entrances; and you (he inclined the man from Anbu) to look out for more entrances. If you locate any, report to me. If something important happens, whistle. If not, inspect the entrance and meet me here in half an hour. Understood?"

Everybody nodded their heads and scattered to their assigned locations.

Finally Shikamaru was alone. After all the ruckus it seemed that the situation got under control. His control. Well, more or less.

He sat on a thick branch of a tree above one of the entrances, approximately 30 meters away, carefully making sure it was difficult to see him from beneath. Looking around he noticed the dog-masked woman in the distance at the same level of a tree as him, guarding another entrance, which was a good thing if he needed help. However what he needed now was silence and solitude to calm his nerves. With his eyes fixed to notice any movement beneath him, his thoughts wandered on the plan.

The entrance he was guarding seemed to be the best one at the first glance. According to a bird-masked guy, it wasn't really active - only one member of the gang actually exited it once, no additional movement was noticed. Entrance was a hole in the rock, carved so that it was hidden from outside by thick trees and some neighbouring rocks. So if any fighting took place here, it was likely it will go unnoticed by other members.

What would happen once they're inside though, he could only guess and improvise. They had no data about the structure of the hideout nor how many members there actually were. He was thinking about using his shadow technique to immobilize multiple targets and how he could make use of it in the darkness of the underground caves, when some motion by the entrance suddenly caught his attention.

A young man appeared in the sunlight. Shikamaru could see him very clearly - long, straight brown loose hair, dressed in black long-sleeved clothing and black pants. He whispered something to someone seemingly still in the cave, with an apparent smile on his face, and another person stepped out. It was a girl. Her black hair fell freely on her shoulders, and she wore a bright blue dress. Without a doubt, it was Takako. However there was one weird detail. The girl was laughing.

Shikamaru's pulse increased. He whistled. For an untrained ear it was difficult to distinguish this sound, and the couple on the ground seemed to be too preoccupied with each other.

The man took Takako's hand and pulled her away from the entrance, towards a group of trees growing together, forming a natural shield from the cave yet exposed completely on the other side. Exactly the side Shikamaru could see.

The couple kissed passionately. Within seconds the girl's dress was pulled at her waist, the man's hands hungrily clutching at her breasts.

Anbu women landed behind him.

"Nara the pervert. I would have expected for you to whistle after they're done." she whispered.

Shikamaru gazed back to give her a look. An important mission turns out to be a complete waste of time and she's focused only on mocking him?

He looked down at the pair as the other gathered. All stared, confused or amused, at the couple who looked simply like two lovers.

"If we're here for the kidnapping, then this must be rape." Shikamaru added. Others giggled but he was simply annoyed. And looking at the couple it was apparent they had to do something or wait out until they're done.

"Let's go down." he said, turning briefly for responses.

Anbu woman protested. "What about your famous planning? You're jumping into what might be a trap without any plan of action?"

"I have a plan. It doesn't require any actions from us except intervention." He cut, and this time without further ado leaped off the tree branch.

Within a second he was on the ground and others gathered behind him. The couple was startled.

"Who the hell are you and what do you want!?" the man shouted, while the girl let out a squeal and turned away to cover herself.

"We're hired by lord Mizuki to track down his daughter's kidnappers and safely take her home." Shikamaru answered, tucking hands into his pockets. Ino, who stood beside him, smiled with a corner of her mouth as she well understood the meaning of his movement, while both Anbu seemed to be on their toes, ready to jump.

"Kidnappers?!" Takako scurried in front of her lover. "Seriously!? My father has gone insane!"

"As shinobi, our mission is to take you home to your father. Lady Takako, please comply." Anbu bird-man said firmly.

"I'm not going anywhere. I'm sorry you wasted your time on this "mission", but I'm here on my own decision. My father is aware of that, but hopes to arrange a marriage for me with some other landlord's son. End of discussion."

From the way she tilted her head and turned on her heel to go, he could tell a lot about her. She was most likely the only child, pampered and loved, and her life planned ahead for her. Rebelling against her parents, she ran off with a bad boy and was enjoying her life in a cave. This scenario was simply too typical.

Takako took her boyfriend by the hand and stepped towards the cave again, but Anbu members stopped her. The dog-masked woman locked her hands behind her, while the man pushed the boy aside and prevented him from getting close. Shikamaru noticed a knife, glistening in his hand, and a determination in his face that he knew will result in an attempt to save Takako.

"You're going with us." The Anbu woman announced. "Stop trying to break free or I will restrain you."

"Hey, stop that!" Choji stepped ahead. "There's no need to use violence and much less restraints."

"Let her go." Shikamaru cut off the chaos before it got uncontrollable. "Now."

"You do not command me." She hissed. "We're here as your allies, not subordinates."

"I was assigned the leader of the mission, I chose my team, I chose both of you. I am responsible for this mission and the decisions that are being made. If you continue to ignore my command, the three of us are out of this and you can continue on your own, and carry the responsibility alone."

"If the leader of the mission is obviously failing in execution of it, my duty is to make sure the mission gets carried out! A mission is a mission, and you must complete it no matter what. That's the rule."

"Complete it if you must. But using your brain and your logic once in a while wouldn't hurt. By dragging Takako back to her father you're basically kidnapping an adult person who is perfectly capable of making her own decision. I refuse to do so even if it means a failed mission."

"Fine." She let go of the girl, who sent a hostile look to the masked people, and gratefully looked at Shikamaru. "You'll take the responsibility for failing it."

He turned to go, his trademark calmness again apparent on his face, even though he was slightly shivering inside.

"Lady Takako, you should try to find some connection with your father. He will not stop trying to take you back until you two actually begin to understand one another."

"Do tell him the same thing. Last time I tried I ended up locked up in my room for 2 weeks."

"I will."

It was an hour-long walk to the mansion of Takako's father. The company didn't converse much. Anbu woman seemed pissed, bird-masked guy indifferent. Ino and Choji silently talked once in a while but they also looked a bit disappointed that the mission turned out to be a silly wish of a landlord. They have been trained for fighting, not solving some family matters.

Shikamaru felt annoyed as well. Annoyed because of the way this day was going and as they came closer to the gates the feeling only increased.

The old man, his face already warped in anger, came at them shouting.

"Where the hell is my daughter!? Why is she not with you!?"

Shikamaru tried his best to remain calm.

"We found lady Takako. She is with the group of bandits, living in the cave hideout beside Dohiko village. However, unlike we have been told, she was not kidnapped but rather went there on her own. She informed us that you very well knew about her decision."

"I knew, so what! You had to bring her back to me!" He took a step ahead, ready to grab Shikamaru by his vest aggressively, but Choji stepped in front of them. The size of his friend, and perhaps his expression calmed the landlord a little. "Why didn't you bring her back? That was your mission!"

Shikamaru heard a mocking humph behind him, coming from behind a dog mask. Irritation was tickling his brain from the inside of his skull.

"Our mission was to save the kidnapped girl. There weren't any."

"You bastard!" Oldman leaped again, and this time Choji had to push him back. "Mizuki-san, please calm down."

"Calm down, and perhaps try to understand your daughter as if she was a person, and not your belonging."

"You're not getting any money from me, you useless preaching piece of garbage! You're no good, a disappointment of a shinobi name! A good shinobi does what he is told, no questions asked, if you succeed you get money - that's your true purpose! And not coming here to tell me you failed and try to teach me how to raise my daughter!"

Anger boiled inside him. His face warped in fury. Thoughts ran through his head like thunder, loud and strong, and he bit his teeth together in attempt not to shout back.

"We had comrades, friends, relatives, parents, sons, daughters, cousins, teachers, kages, who died in the war, fighting for our land, for the lives of people, of civilians - like you. And you scream at me, telling my purpose is to serve your whims? To drag your daughter to you, who you failed to raise the way you wanted, so you can lock her up again?" Shikamaru looked with contempt. There was an insult already rolling on his tongue, but before he said it aloud he turned around and stormed out of the mansion's yard.

"I've never seen you fired up like this, Shikamaru." Ino caught up with him after a while. "Are you alright?"

"I'm just having a bad day. Sorry for all this…"

"No, it's okay. I agree with you 100%."

"Thanks. Not everyone does, though."

"Ignore her."

"Yeah." After a second added. "I owe you two a dinner. Just… maybe not today."

It was already evening when they got back to Konoha. They went in to report to the Hokage. Kakashi understood the situation and thanked them for the mission nevertheless.

The woman from Anbu couldn't keep still. She stepped in front and complained.

"Hokage-sama, it is my duty to say I do not agree with the report. First of all, the mission could have been executed much quicker and more smoothly if our leader wouldn't have been late for over an hour. Secondly, he was provoking me the entire day, trying to get into the argument. Finally, we failed to complete the mission only because of his decision; therefore the landlord Mizuki-san refused to pay and this resulted in financial loss to Konoha."

Kakashi sighed. "The contract, which Mizuki-san signed but obviously didn't read, says that a customer must provide all the details sincerely and truthfully. Only if he does so, and we fail the mission, he has an option of refusing to pay. Since Mizuki-san lied about the true purpose of the mission he ordered, as a penalty he will have to pay nevertheless. As for being late…" His eyes slowly turned to Shikamaru's. He would be appalled if Kakashi, well known for his lack of punctuality, scolded him for that. "We are all only human. And Nara brain deserves that extra hour of sleep every now and then." He gave Shikamaru a tiny smile. "Thank you all once again. Dismissed."

As the group stepped out of the office, dog-masked woman darted behind a building without as much as looking at other people. She must be disappointed Hokage didn't say anything to Shikamaru, and her complaints appeared useless. He was actually glad she ran off this way; he didn't really want to converse with her one bit. Other Anbu member shook hands with everyone and disappeared too, while Shikamaru once again promised to take his friends for a dinner before walking away himself.

Instead of walking home he turned the opposite way, ending up in the graveyard without much thought, in front of his father's grave. The weather was calm and pleasant; it was a warm summer evening, with barely any sound interrupting the silence. He stared at the tombstone with blank eyes, reminiscing about the time he got scolded by his father when he failed a mission. It was at that precise moment he realized that he did not want to be a disappointment, not ever; and not the expectations of other people actually guided his behaviour, but rather the expectations he had for himself, sculpted, without their knowledge, by his late father and his teacher. He stared at the stone until he realized he can no longer see what was written, only then turned to go.

Shikamaru couldn't find his peace, and various thoughts wouldn't leave his head. He leaned against a tree just outside the graveyard.

The disappointment of his mother; what the landlords like Mizuki actually thought about shinobi; the feeling of being humiliated by someone who was supposed to be your subordinate - and the feeling of forcing yourself to ignore the humiliation in order to continue the mission. He was aware that everything felt so intolerable mainly because the lack of his own inner harmony, and if he managed to control his emotions from early on, everything would be different. But now this day was just a big mess. He decided to wait some more until his mother would be asleep, and then head home in hopes to sleep it all off.

He fished a pack of cigarettes from his pocket, took one and lit it up. With the first breath the familiar feeling of easiness took over him; he held in the smoke for a second before letting it out, and closed his eyes. Suppressed images of what he saw today in the forest by the hideout unexpectedly crept into his mind, and right as Takako's half naked body appeared in his thoughts, they were interrupted.

"Shikamaru?"

That was the sound of trouble.

He could recognize that voice from across the village, but now it originated a mere 4 meters away. Temari.

He reluctantly opened his eyes to see the familiar figure approaching. As always, she wore that confident expression on her face.

"What are you doing here?"

Her voice was curious - for now. He very well knew it would soon be teasing and mocking him despite of his answer.

"Smoking."

From the tilt of her head he figured he just poured some gasoline into the fire.

"You don't say." As expected, her tone now resembled something more characteristic of her. However the fact that she just used the exact same line he heard from the Anbu today left him annoyed. Are all the women against him today?

He attempted to soften the situation and apologetically added. "Bad day."

The blonde in front of him leaned against a tree as well and observed how his hand brings the cigarette back to his lips. You could never know with her - she might be the worst person to talk to right now, or the best. She would either tease you until you're mad, or understand you from a few words. Precisely this inability to predict made him not really wanting to talk to her right now.

"Someone died?" She chose the teasing this time.

"Is your day only bad when someone dies?"

"No, that is a good day. But you're standing by the graveyard." He could hear rather than see a smile on her lips. She was right, there he was. He stayed silent, really clueless of how to respond, because he had a feeling in his gut she very well knew why was he here, and from what she said next he knew she saw his frustration.

"Did you fail a mission again?"

That "again" gave away her tone of the conversation; she was not here to console him, but rather tried to cheer him up by teasing.

"It depends on how you look at it."

"Did you cry?"

But that didn't work for him right now. The way he saw it, she was nastily mocking him, and he didn't want any of that. Even in the darkness he saw her white teeth shining at him. Some other day he might just smile at that, since this was the usual way she made fun of him, but today Shikamaru simply felt annoyed.

"Listen, I don't really want to talk right now." He turned to go, trying to physically run away from another bad thing happening today.

"Don't really want to talk to me, is that what you're saying?"

He stopped in his tracks, boiling in anger.

He wasn't sure what got him more - the womanly way of transforming something someone said into something that was not said, or the fact that she was right.

"Yes, you're right! I don't want to talk to you."

"Why is that, tell me?" She wouldn't shut up. "Why you don't want to speak with me, Nara?"

He pulled in a smoke and before he said anything she spoke again.

"Are you afraid to hear what you don't want to hear? Are you afraid to show me you're frustrated because you know instead of petting you I would bite? Are you still inclined to run away from all what is unpleasant in your life?"

She was so right it actually hurt. Yes, he wanted a peace of mind, and even if it meant running away from something, then be it. But what he wanted right now, exactly, was to be left alone.

He took a few steps back, stood right before her and looked her in the eye. In the darkness they seemed completely black, and just like her voice - provoking. He took another smoke and shook off the ashes on the ground without pulling away his eyes.

"What do you want, Temari?" he asked in a croaking voice, exhaling the fume. It went straight to her face but he didn't care.

She had the answer ready.

"For you to grow up and stop being a crybaby, afraid of things that aren't easy."

Emotions boiled inside him, stirred by her intimidating eyes. They never faltered, stared right back at him; a corner of her lips turned upwards in a crooked smile. She was definitely one of the things that weren't easy. Just now, staring at her face in detail, he realized the proximity between them, and the suffocating air around. It felt heavy to breathe. But now, instead of wanting to run away, Shikamaru had a completely different urge.

He leaned in and kissed her.

His hand sneaked behind the nape of her neck almost instinctively to pull her closer, and the feeling of her body warmth and soft lips felt like exactly what he needed. Temari squirmed shortly, but then stopped fighting him at all, and gave in into the kiss, and from the way she was breathing it was easy to tell he was not the only one enjoying this. Heaviness already pressed his lower pelvis, but suddenly one of her hands pushed away his chest as Temari came back to her senses. He reluctantly broke the kiss and stepped back.

She was too affected to even say something, stared at him with widened eyes trying to regain her breath, and Shikamaru stayed silent too. He pulled the last smoke of his still sizzling cigarette, threw it on the ground and stepped on it. He gazed at her one more time, making sure his message was understood.

It was hard to suppress the smile he had on his face the entire time he was walking home.


End file.
